Mother Gets 2 Months To Treat Daughter, 7

AP

Published: October 11, 1990

HARTFORD, Oct. 10—
A Chinese woman who has fought state attempts to use surgery to treat her 7-year-old daughter has won the right to try traditional Chinese medicine but may be forced to agree to surgery later.

Judge T. Emmet Clarie of Federal District Court Tuesday gave the mother, Juliet Cheng, two months to try herbs, acupuncture, vitamins and physical therapy to treat her daughter for severe juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

But Ms. Cheng will not be allowed to take Shirley back to China for treatment as she had hoped.

Under the agreement, Ms. Cheng will have to keep her daughter in the United States while she receives traditional Chinese treatment over the next two months. Ms. Cheng will also have to accept a final recommendation from a panel of three physicians who will examine the girl after the trial period.

Doctors at Newington Children's Hospital have said surgery on tissue around joints in Shirley's legs would help her walk again. But her mother, who has taken the girl to China for treatment four times, insists that only traditional Chinese medicine can help her daughter.